The Famous Departure
by AbbyH321
Summary: Finished & Edited! What if Jack never came back to the newsies after he had planned to leave for Santa Fe? What if he actually became a cowboy? What if his 'dream' is only just that?


Disclaimer: I don't own any characters except for Carver.

This is for Newsies Challenge: Week 5. Enjoy!

Dear Journal,

Jack Kelly, our friend, our brother, our leader, has deserted us. He has left, gone away. Apparently his dream overshadows his friends and what we consider to be his family. He has packed his bags and gone to Santa Fe. His dream, his focus, his everything. Or so he believes anyway.

It's been about a week now, since he has departed and left Racetrack in charge. He's doing alright, he keeps order decently. He's definitely got a strict side to him, as well as the sarcastic lump we all have known. Even though there isn't exactly much for him to do around here, Race has still got quite an act to follow.

At least Jack did one thing right, he has raised a future Manhattan leader. Les has talked his parents into letting him stay at the lodging house on non-school nights and selling on the weekends. It's nice to have some optimism around here.

We can all only hope that Jack will come back to us one day to revisit his friends and old memories. We can only hope he is alright.

-Mush

As I sat there, the fourth and final day on this train. I had done it, I had gone, I was finally on my own with not a care in the world. I left everything I knew to follow my dream and here I am in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Opportunity has been sprung upon me to be a cowboy. The wide open land, the bright and dazzling sun, endless diamond sky, big blue horizons, it's like a whole new world. All of this space to roam and be free, it's amazing.

Suddenly, the train came to an unexpected stop, well in my mind anyway. I guess I had been daydreaming, I hadn't even realized we had gotten here. Besides the small train station, I could see a few saloons and run down general stores in a distance.

For as wide open and rural as this small town was, I'd like to add that it was very noisy. People were rushing off of this train. The more I looked around the more I realized just how many large groups of people there were. Many families of seven or more tried to stay close together not to get lost in the large crowds.

At least I didn't have anyone else to worry about, yep, it was just me, all by myself, no more newsies to look after, all alone, no one else.

People who were screaming names trying to find the people they had lost coming into the crowds. For a second I felt, well, kinda lonely.

I pulled my bag off the storage car and tried to find some sort of information table as I attempted to get through the massive amounts of people. Which trust me, was definitely much harder then it sounds at the moment.

As I kept treading through the crowds, my bag had smacked this boy's head straight on. He started screaming and crying before I could even realize what had happened. The weird part about all of this was the kid didn't seem to have anyone with him, so being the good natured good guy that I am, I got down to his level. He kind of reminded me of a younger version of Les, but I quickly erased that thought from my mind.

"Are you alright?" I asked him. I didn't exactly get a response he just kind of stood there and kept crying. "You got parents kid?" I asked him.

He then shook his head no.

"Why not kid?" I proceeded. This time, I actually kind of got an answer.

"My-my bro-brother put me on the train," he stuttered out, "he s-said I was going on a ri-ride, b-but he didn't c-come." At these last words he broke into sobs once more.

"You and me both kid," I told him. Looking around at all of the people happy and together, then looking at all that open space, I thought to myself that just maybe I was going to be well, kinda lonely. "Tell, you what kid," I started, "why don't you come with me?" He nodded in approval and we started off.

All of the people who had just gotten off of the train seemed to have either people meeting them there, or have gotten a horse and carriage to where they would be staying. But I couldn't afford that, let alone know where I was destined to go. So me and the kid would just have to walk.

Trying to spark a conversation on what I could tell was going to be a long journey I tried to get some more information out of the kid. "So what's your name kid?" I asked him.

"Carver," he told me, "Carver Bennings."

"How old are you?" I asked him.

"5," he said, holding out his whole hand, "but I'm gonna be six in March." Being it was July, he still had a little ways to go, I laughed to myself.

It seemed like we were walking forever, once we had passed that small town next to the train station there seemed to be nothing but desert. But we kept walking and walking and walking. I started to get extremely hungry, but there was nothing in sight to even eat. The walking in silence continued.

Then I heard something, a faint sort of mumbling. Then I looked down to realize it was just the kid. "What?" I asked him.

"Do you know where you're going, mister?" he asked me.

"Nope," I replied, and we continued on.

We walked on in the desert for what felt like hours, but according to the sun we hadn't been traveling long at all. After a couple of more steps I saw something up ahead. It looked like a building.

I was too tired to run so I just kept walking. The building grew as I got closer to it, and finally we had reached it. It had a big sign of the front of it reading: Café. It had a little patio under an overhang from the large roof covering.

But only, because of my great luck the café seemed to be deserted. No one was in sight, and when I looked into the window the inside seemed to be empty as well.

"Dammit!" I shouted, it wasn't like anyone could hear me, except for Carver.

"Hey mister?" he said. "Not right now Carver, I'm really mad," I exclaimed.

"But mister!" he continued.

"Not right now!" I yelled, collapsing to the ground.

"The door's unlocked." And he swung the door to the café right open. And so we both walked right in. I was so tired, I walked right over to a booth and laid down on one of the benches. Within five minutes I had fallen asleep.

"JACK!!!" I bolted up, hearing my name being screamed into my ears by Kloppman. Oh, how he woke us up so gently every morning.

"Kloppman, enough is enough! Would you stop-," but I cut off half way through my sentence. I looked around to find myself, no place other then in my bunk back in Manhattan.

I was in complete shock. Was it really just a dream? It seemed so........real.

I jumped off my bunk and got ready for work, just like any other morning. I walked outside to find pure civilization, with buildings and people. I smiled to myself and started to run and spin down the road.

Mush came running up to me, "Jack, what are you doing?"

"I'm back Mush!" I told him.

"But you never left," he said, with a look of puzzlement.

"Oh yes I did Mush, you were writing in your journal about how I had left and gone to Santa Fe and Race was leader but the train ride was so long and then at the station I was all by myself until I ran into this kid who was abandoned so he tagged along with me but then we were in the desert and then there was this café but it was closed and then the door was unlocked so we went in and I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew I woke up here," I tried to say all in one breath.

"Silly Jack," Mush said, "I don't keep a journal."

The End...........

R&R people!


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